A web log, an æthereal scrap-book if you will, with a somewhat vintage flavour. News items, occurrences, experiences, thoughts and opinions related to Victoriana through to Fifties Americana can all be found here.

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Tuesday, 22 March 2011

The Fleet's Lit Up!

Things have been quiet again lately in my world of vintage; news seems to be dominated by unfortunate world events, which is not what this blog is about, and the last few days have been uneventful for me personally. However I've got a few posts lined up for the next week or so, more on that later.

This hasn't stopped The Vintage Knitter from bestowing upon this blog a little award - The Liebster Blog Award (The Lovely Blog Award, if my A-level German hasn't failed me!), which is especially for blogs with fewer than 300 followers. My thanks to VK for the thought, and off my own bat I choose to pass on the award to the following 10 fellow bloggers:

Speaking of followers, a hearty welcome to the latest batch who have stumbled across my corner of the Interweb and decided to stay. It seems like only yesterday that there were 70 of you - now I'm up to 93! Nearly at the ton, what? A giveaway! I promised a giveaway at some point, and by Jove I'll have one when I reach 100 followers!

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I leave you with this infamous and hilarious recording from the early years of B.B.C. radio. The "Woodrooffe Incident" or "The Fleet's Lit Up" occurred during the 1937 Spithead Review (where H.M. The King inspected the Royal Navy fleet at Spithead, off the Hampshire coast). Lt. Commander Thomas Woodrooffe was an ex-RN man employed by the B.B.C. to present the review on the wireless. It just so happened that HMS Nelson, the flagship from which he was broadcasting, was his old ship and he knew many of the crew. He made the mistake of engaging in a bit of a knees-up with them prior to going on the air and subsequently, as you can hear, was three sheets to the wind when it came time to tell what was going on! It is said that the repeated phrase "lit up" later became a synonym for "drunk"; Woodrooffe actually denied he was plastered, claiming instead that he was "tired and emotional" (another synonym, perhaps?!) being the only B.B.C. man covering the event. He was suspended for a week but kept his job, later commentating on the 1938 FA Cup final where he stated - 1 minute from full time - that "if there's a goal scored now, I'll eat my hat". You can probably guess what happened next..

Fantastic Woodrooffe incident! I'll be sure to keep an eye out & ear to the ground when the double bullseye is reached & am sure it wil be in no time at all! And thank you kind Sir for the inclusion of the humble Dandy's Blog in your Top Ten!

About Me

A fan of all things vintage (say, roughly, the period 1875-1950 - but
particularly the '20s and '30s), including steam/dieselpunk,
retro-futurism, motor cars, aeroplanes, steam locomotives, fashion,
jazz, film and culture. Just looking to brighten people's days with the
odd jolly story. Pip-pip!